The One Unit That Will Decide the SEC West Champion

Five games into the season, and the SEC West has a mess on its hands.

The two teams who have earned top five rankings through the first month-plus of the season—Alabama and Ole Miss—have already suffered losses, Texas A&M and LSU are the only undefeated teams left, and suddenly, Arkansas—which was dead and buried after losing to Toledo, Texas Tech and Texas A&M—has a little life after beating Tennessee on the road.

All that, and there are still seven games left in the regular season.

Team	Conf. Rec.	Overall Rec.
Texas A&M	2-0	5-0
LSU	2-0	4-0
Ole Miss	2-1	4-1
Alabama	1-1	4-1
Arkansas	1-1	2-3
Mississippi State	1-2	3-2
Auburn	0-2	3-2

Which individual unit will decide the SEC West? It's the Texas A&M defensive line, and it isn't all that close.

Led by sophomore defensive end Myles Garrett and junior Daeshon Hall, the Aggies have transformed themselves into a force up front. Garrett's 7.5 sacks on the season rank third nationally, Hall has five more to his name, and the Aggies as a whole lead the conference with 19 sacks on the season.

As Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports noted on Twitter, the pair has become one of the most feared duos off the edge in college football this year:

Texas A&M's front four is hardly a one-trick pony, though. When combined with fellow linemen Julien Obioha, Daylon Mack, Alonzo Williams and Qualen Cunningham, the Aggies are loaded across the board, aggressive and able to keep those big bodies fresh for a full four quarters.

This unit will decide the SEC West.

If they can force teams into shootout situations and allow Hall and Garrett to pin their ears back consistently, it'll be lights out for the opposition. 

The problem for the Aggies, though, is that the run defense hasn't played where it needs to play in order to get the power running teams in the SEC West off of their game and into passing situations. The Aggies rank next-to-last in the SEC in rushing defense after giving up 182.6 yards per game on the ground through five games.

That's going to have to change, because if teams like Alabama and LSU establish the run, then the Texas A&M defense will be on its heels throughout the contest.

It's a young defense, though. We've already seen studs like true freshman Daylon Mack emerge as forces up front, including on this play against Nevada in which he swallowed two players.

There are no complete teams in the SEC West, but Texas A&M is on the brink of becoming one if it can shore up its run defense. A little help will go a long way, because with the offense that the Aggies are able to produce with quarterback Kyle Allen at the helm, they can force other teams into shootouts very easily. 

Alabama is already a game behind the Aggies with a loss on its resume, Texas A&M has two weeks to prepare for the Tide at home, and Alabama will be on its seventh game in as many weeks.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press/Associated Press

Plus, as we've seen twice over the last three seasons, the Aggie offense is fully capable of exploiting Alabama's problems in the defensive backfield. If that happens again, quarterback Jake Coker better watch out, because Garrett and Hall will tee off.

One-loss Ole Miss can't run the ball against air, much less a defense that trots 11 players out there. Plus, as head coach Hugh Freeze pointed out after Saturday's 38-10 loss to Florida, his Rebels have some issues up front.

"I’m concerned for everything, [offensive line] being one of them," he said in quotes released by Ole Miss. "We’re playing some young kids up there against a really good defensive front. Everybody has some young kids, and everybody has some injuries, and nobody really wants to hear that. We just have to get the ones we have prepared to play, and play better."

The game against LSU could be the one that decides the division.

With that game on the final weekend of the regular season, that young defensive line will have plenty of time to prepare for the Leonard Fournette express. 

Based on the result of that game, the Aggies could take a trip the following week to Atlanta and play for the SEC title.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com. Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.